Gurgaon Action Plan

Atul Sobti

India

Jun 19, 2015

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FG had recommended a 100-day Gurgaon Action Plan for the new State govt. in end-November 2014. While certain positive actions have been taken at the State level, not much progress has been made in the City, especially on civic issues - even after 200 days. The exception has been some good initiatives taken by the Gurgaon Traffic Police.

With the new State govt. now settling down, FG hopes that it will be ‘different’ and that ‘achhe din ab aayenge’. Having seen Gurgaon up very close, in multiple spheres, and interacted with a wide cross-section of people for over 3 years, we believe that the following actions would be most beneficial for the citizens of Gurgaon.

Water

Start operating a water supply schedule, colony wise

Inspect and repair all water pipelines

Repair the Gurgaon Water Supply canal

Provide power back up to the Basai Water Treatment Plant

Power

Start operating a power supply schedule, colony wise

Inspect and repair all sub-stations

Ensure all private builders put up sub-stations wherever deficient (otherwise encash their bank guarantees and have the sub-stations set up by a govt. authority)

Appoint and involve many more Road Safety Officers in traffic management

Involve school and college children, including those in villages, in road safety campaigns

Ensure visible Police presence on the roads, especially after dark

Keep a special look out around liquor vends and ‘ahatas’/bars

Continue all other citizen friendly and criminal deterrent initiatives that have been undertaken by the Police over the past year

RWA Support

Set up a special RWA Cell under the DC or the MCG Commissioner, which will resolve all ongoing RWA-Builder issues and ensure that builders are made fully accountable for their omissions and wrongful actions

Public Transport

Increase the frequency of the City Bus service substantially

Set up bus shelters at all designated bus stops

Ensure all autos are metered

EWS Housing

Allot (on rental or sale basis) the many ready but vacant EWS apartments in various private and govt. colonies

Unauthorised Colonies

Urgently provide basic civic services to the residents of these colonies, especially those that have already been (recently) regularised

e Civic Services

Set up an ‘e resolution’ framework for the availability and delivery of all basic citizen services

Skill Development

Designate that the local ITI will now be run on a PPP basis, with multiple industry stakeholders (PPP)

Village Development

Take up the redevelopment (and ‘integration’) of a village within the current Gurgaon City. This initiative should then be included in the 2031 Master Plan, so that it applies to all villages in the new (58 to 115) sectors.

Develop this initiative into a benchmark ‘Rurban’ initiative

Disaster Management

Develop and test the plans for coping with an earthquake, a big fire, excessive pollution or a terrorist attack.

* Areas where Public Private Partnership could be very beneficial, and should be resorted to, have been marked (PPP). Gurgaon should soon become a Benchmark City for: e Waste, e Civic Services, Swachh Garbage Segregation, Public Toilets, Girls Toilets in Schools, Traffic Management through Road Safety Officers and ITI PPP. Separately, plans for the following longer term Benchmark projects should be drawn up: Solar Energy, Non-Motorised Transport and Wifi services.

Further:

The maintenance of the entire City needs to be transferred to MCG – including all private colonies, HUDA and Housing Board areas. Requisite manpower and funds from other departments need to be transferred to MCG.

People should not be allowed to take up residence in the new sectors (58 to 115) of Gurgaon until a formal water and power connection is sanctioned to the project/RWA/society.

Master Plan 2031 should be revisited, especially in light of the deficiencies in the current City areas. In fact a White Paper on Gurgaon needs to first be prepared, pointing out the current issues, challenges and discrepancies.

Most importantly, the local administrators need to stop deflecting the problems to each other, citing jurisdiction. If boundaries for tackling crime are being abolished, surely any civil matter can be helpfully resolved by any administrator.